How to Use the Record

To begin your search, you will need to know the following information:

Ancestor’s name

Type of event, such as the christening or baptism

Approximate date of the event

When you have located your ancestor's record, compare the information to what you already know about your ancestor to determine whether this is the correct person. You may need to compare the information of more than one person to make this determination.

Once you have determined that this is your ancestor, carefully evaluate each piece of information in the record. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors.

For example:

Use christening (baptismal) and birth records to identify a person’s birth date and place. These are an excellent substitute for civil birth records.

Use confirmation records to identify a person’s birth date and place and age. If only the age is given, use it to calculate the person’s death date.

Use death or burial records to identify a person’s birth date and place. Use age at the time of death or burial to calculate the person’s birth date. These are an excellent substitute for civil death records.

Use marriage records to identify a couple and the marriage date and place and to begin compiling a family group. These are an excellent substitute for civil marriage records.

Use church records in general to identify other family members who may have served as witnesses to an event.

Use the date of the event along with the locality to find the family in census records and land records.

Use the residence and names of the parents to locate church and land records.

It is often helpful to extract the information on all children with the same parents. Or, if the surname is unusual, you may want to compile entries for every person of the same surname and then sort them into families based on the names of the parents. Continue to search the birth records to identify siblings, parents, and other relatives in the same or other generations who were born in the same county or nearby.

If you do not find your ancestor, try these suggestions:

Look for variant spellings of the names or for nicknames.

Check the records of other congregations in the area or nearby communities.

Be aware of the following:

An infant’s christening usually took place within a few days or few weeks of the birth, depending on the religion. Some churches, such as the Baptists, baptized only adults not infants. Members of other sects blessed their infants when they were a few weeks or a few months old.

Many religions tested the church knowledge of those that had been baptized as infants and then confirmed them a member of that religion. Frequently, a person’s age at confirmation was between 14 and 20.

Church records are considered a primary source. They are usually reliable because they are kept by the minister, or a clerk appointed by the minister, who usually recorded an event at or very near the time it occurred.

Record History

Church records in the United States began in the early 1600s. They can be found in the churches, church archives, or university archives. They normally included records of christenings, confirmations, marriages, and deaths.

The Roman Catholic Church is the largest Christian church in the world. Traditionally, Catholic records have been kept at the parish level, so a majority of records will be found at the church where the event transpired. Older Catholic records and records of defunct Catholic parishes have often been moved to archives, historical archives, or university libraries.

Why the Record Was Created

To know who were members, churches were required to record the date a person was baptized in the Christian religion. Many churches also recorded the date of birth along with the date of baptism. Churches were also required to record the burial and marriage dates of the members of the local congregation. Only some churches performed confirmations and were required to record the names of those that were confirmed members of the church.

Record Reliability

Church records are considered a primary source. They are usually reliable because they are kept by the priest or a clerk appointed by the priest, who usually recorded an event at or very near the time it occurred.

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